From the forms of boredom to boredom as resistance

Abstract

This paper presents an assay in relating literature to philosophy through a focus on boredom that, as the title suggests, unfolds around the forms of this phenomenon. To this end, it follows the trail begun by Heidegger when he distinguished three types of boredom: to be bored with, to be bored in, and deep boredom. The first section of the article elucidates this author’s reflections in the Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics by referring to three literary texts: one by Robert Walser entitled, “One morning”, for the first form of boredom, George Perec’s A man who sleeps, for the second, and The tedium by Alberto Moravia for deep boredom. In the second part, I focus on this third form, deep boredom. Finally, the conclusion outlines an approach to tedium from its potential for resistance: sloth and resistance as a philosophy of defiance.